Storm Melematisa Teana Apera-Seve

On the day four-year-old Storm Melematisa Teana Apera-Seve was picked up by her father, Lapana Msikeke Seve, she clung to her older sister Natasha from the passenger seat of his car yelling, "Sister, I don't want to go." Her unmarried parents had been together for about 10 years before her mother separated from him a year earlier. Storm's 45-year-old father wanted full custody of his daughter, instead of access on weekends. He was often late returning Storm to her mother in Grey Lynn. Seve's friend said that he had fights with Storm's mother and was a heavy drinker and could get violent. "In his young days he knocked over guys who were twice his size." Seve worked at KFC, was a member of the Richmond Rugby League Club, and spent his weekends at Grey Lynn Park and Coxs Bay Reserve refereeing games, his children often with him. Seve pretended to friends that the couple were still together. Storm's half-sister Alison says that she hadn't liked Seve who she thought wasn't right in the head. "He'd smile, and then he'd get angry and you'd hear him yelling. And then he'd be smiling again, as though everything was okay." Storm had been happiest when she was with her mum, Alison said. When Storm didn't turn up to her Te Apii Reo o Kuki Airani preschool on Richmond Road on Monday morning, Storm's mother tried in vain to contact Seve, going to his home several times and leaving notes. Seve had kidnapped his daughter and they were sleeping rough in his Toyota Caldina station wagon at Avondale Racecourse. A bruise on Storm's face led medical staff to believe Seve may have struck his daughter to subdue her prior to stabbing her in the parking area at Avondale Racecourse on Wednesday 3 November 2004. He then laid her on the back seat of his car and covered her with a duvet. Seve then seems to have driven around while Storm bled to death. His car was seen around midday on Wednesday afternoon at the side of the Northwestern Motorway's city-bound lane near Patiki Road. The bonnet of the car was up and hazard lights flashing. Seve later abandoned the broken-down car and then committed suicide by walking across two lanes of rush-hour traffic and into the path of a truck and trailer unit. Parts of his body were found across the motorway between Whau River and Patiki Road just before 4pm. Both sides of the motorway were closed for hours and traffic throughout much of the city came to a standstill. "He's been quite wrapped up in his daughter, quite obsessed with his daughter ... wanting her with him all the time," said Detective Sergeant Megan Goldie. If he couldn't have her, no one could. Storm's funeral was held at the Pacific Islands Congregational Church in Newton, and she was buried in the Māngere Lawn Cemetery. Her father's funeral was held three days later.

Sources

1. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/faces-of-innocents/80841623/faces-...
2. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/family-farewell-a-son-who-killed-his-...
3. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/tragic-girl-loved-too-much/VIQSQ3LVSC...
4. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/father-on-run-for-days-with-daughter/...
5. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/girls-family-cherish-memories-of-her-...
6. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/friends-say-motorway-tragedy-followed...